An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is an aircraft which flies without a pilot on board. Operational requirements for the UAV often include the capability to take off and land without a runway. Ideally, such a UAV is launched and recovered into the wind to maximize lift and reduce ground speed requirements.
Typical UAV launch and recovery devices have wind envelope limitations that define the maximum allowable crosswind and tail wind. When these limitations are exceeded, which often happens when wind direction and velocity changes, launch and recovery is not allowed to prevent damage to the UAV or hazards to ground personnel.
A first conventional approach to deal with these wind envelope limitations is for a human ground crew to reorient the launch and recovery equipment.
A second conventional approach is for a human ground team to have two sets of freestanding UAV launch and recovery equipment delivered and pointed in different directions at the launch and recovery location. Under this second conventional approach, if the wind changes direction making one set of launch and recovery equipment unsuitable, the direction of the other set of launch and recovery equipment may be acceptable thus enabling UAV launch and recovery using the other set of launch and recovery equipment.